Coatesville Council calls executive session over leases

COATESVILLE — City Council ordered an executive session during an agenda item Monday for purposes of council members’ clarification of a proposal to replace vehicles for the city.

The proposal involves leasing vehicles for “purposes of acquiring police, fire and public works vehicles for the use of the city,” according to the agenda.

John Marcareli, the city’s director of finance, told the council the cost of leasing will be covered by the budget.

Council questioned if the cost would fit in to the budget.

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Councilwoman C. Arvilla Hunt began to question how the proposal was presented Monday after the budget had previously been presented earlier in the year. The city plans to sell property and the money will go toward the budget. She discussed the presentation in a way of “trying to get the yes” from council to approve selling of the property of land.

City Manager Kirby Hudson said the presentation of the proposal for purchasing of the vehicles from leasing has not changed.

“I think one of the main concerns of the council is … how the budget was presented and how much money we’re going to take out of the trust fund ...” Council Vice President Joe Hamrick said regarding what would happen if the motion passes.

With that, Hunt privately asked for five minutes, to which Council President David Collins called for a five-minute executive session.

There was no motion or vote made to have the executive session, as procedure of Robert’s Rules calls to occur. Nor was there an explanation for calling the executive session. The discussions of the executive sessions are kept confidential and the minutes are kept separate from the regular minutes.

Hunt later confirmed the session was called for clarification.

According to Sunshine Laws, an executive session can be called to consider the purchase or lease of real property.

About 15 minutes later the council members returned. Collins thanked the audience and the other members present for their patience. He said the council had “minor misunderstandings which we cleared up” during the executive session. The council did not elaborate on this for the public’s knowledge of what the nature of the session regarded. Collins allowed Marcareli to continue with his presentation to the council.

The council had no additional questions following this and the council members made a motion to vote. The three motions passed 4-0. Collins said to “let the record show that the proper procedure would have been to request a motion to go to executive session and reconvene a motion” to return to the open discussion.

Collins later explained the nature of the misunderstanding and he said the executive session clarified that the proposal previously presented to council was the same as the one presented to council on Monday. He explained that because the proposal from Monday was what was presented to council originally, the council went through the proposals on the agenda so quickly.

The council voted on the leasing of the vehicles as three separate items for the fire department, police department and public works.

The executive session was called for the council members to accurately understand the proposal to be the same as originally presented, Collins said. The session saved the public from hearing information repeated until the council understood the proposal to be the same, he said.

The original proposal came after the budget approval in December, he said. One of the council meetings in February involved a discussion on selling city property. The administration proposed to sell the property, Collins said, and one use of the money could be to purchase vehicles for the city. He said council had previously agreed the costs of repairs for the current city vehicles are “through the roof.” After the value of the property is determined, the plan involves using the money from the property to pay off the leases, Collins said as a matter of saving money on the payments.

The executive session, Collins said, clarified the proposal to be the same “proactive” approach to lease vehicles.